Ari Vatanen

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Ari Vatanen
Ari Vatanen 2006.
World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Finnish
Active years	1974 - 1998, 2003
Teams	Ford, Opel, Peugeot, Subaru, BMW, Mitsubishi
World rallies	101
Championships	1 (1981)
Wins	10
Podium finishes	27
Stage wins	527
Points	518
First world rally	1974 1000 Lakes Rally
First win	1980 Acropolis Rally
Last win	1985 Swedish Rally
Last world rally	2003 Neste Oil Rally Finland
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Winning the 1984 1000 Lakes Rally in a Peugeot 205 T16

Ari Vatanen (pronunciation (help·info)) (born April 27, 1952 in Tuupovaara) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament.

Vatanen was born and grew up in rural Tuupovaara in Eastern Finland. His debut year in professional rally was in 1970, and he became World Rally Champion in 1981 with Ford, at the wheel of an Escort RS1800. He has won the Paris-Dakar Rally three times with Peugeot, in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and again with Citroën in 1991. With Peugeot, he has also won the famous Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, after Peugeot stopped participating in the world rally championship series in 1986, due to the demise of Group B rally. Peugeot used the lessons learnt from its 205 T16 to create the 405 T16. With at least 600bhp, huge aerofoils, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, the talented Vatanen took the car up the hill in record time, his efforts being captured in the award-winning short film "Climb Dance".

Close to death after a major accident on the 1985 Argentinean Rally, whilst driving a Peugeot 205 T16, Ari spent 18 months winning a personal health battle over serious injury and depression, heightened by his irrational and un-founded fear that he had contracted AIDS from an infected blood transfusion. He made a complete recovery and his return to motorsport in 1987 saw him go on to win the Paris-Dakar Rally mentioned above and he become the centre of controversy when his car was stolen whilst leading the same rally in 1988.

From 1979 until the end of 1981, Vatanen was co-driven, in the Escort RS1800, by David Richards, who went on to become chairman of Prodrive, the Banbury based motorsport team and one of the most influential figures in British (and Worldwide) motorsport.

His autobiography 'Every Second Counts', detailing his life and career up until that point, was published in 1988 (SAF Publishing, ISBN 0-946719-04-7) and instantly became a best seller.

Following his years of working with a French rally team, in 1993 he settled in southern France where he bought a farm and a winery. He soon developed an interest in politics, and in 1999 he was elected to the European Parliament from the list of the conservative Finnish National Coalition party, despite continuing to live in France. The issues he has worked on include car taxation, traffic policies, development aid, and agricultural policy.

In 2004 he was re-elected, this time from the list of the conservative French Union for a Popular Movement.

His hunger for motorsport had not left him completely however, and Vatanen joined Nissan in the Paris-Dakar in 2003, finishing 7th. He drove in 2004 and 2005 for Nissan as well. In 2007 he made another attempt with Volkswagen, but retired on Stage 7^[1].